May 5, 2009

As WE move ahead with our never ending aspiration, Ewa Bami Jo is improving from day to day, our list of partners, sponsors and interested individual is getting longer by the day. Also in that line we keep building on the concept of the festival.

As part of our strategies to achieve our objectives: We've put in place the EBJ ONE MINUTE media campaign, which kicks off two months prior the festival, where we engage various celebrities and public figures telling us “What dance means to them...”and this will be proffered with a high sense of esteem and professionalism, and well broadcast nationwide, it is our own way of getting the public aware of such existence though such endorsement.

We have as well began EBJ mobilisation of a minimum of 100 students of performing arts in all the three major universities in Lagos to adhere to the festival as volunteers, to host the over 500 students and scholars coming from other parts of the country, as well as over 300 participants coming in from outside the country, giving them the possibility of getting closer to either professionals of their chosen career or fellow arts students coming in from other parts of the country, this we believe will in a way create relationships, and at the same time, give them a sense of ownership of the festival to certain level.

So this is where we feel the need to begin a concrete relationship with our adherents on facebook. Ewa Bami Jo is an event specially dedicated to throwing glitz and glamour on the city of Lagos through DANCE, CIRCUS, COMEDY, MUSIC, DRAMA, SPOKEN WORD and other interdisciplinary art forms. It operates under the auspices of a NON PROFIT organisation. Thus, we seek volunteers from every part of the world, and the objectives laid down for our volunteers are pretty simple.

PRE-EBJ VOLUNTEERS -

*SPREAD THE WORD ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, MYSPACE, HI5 OF ANY FORUM YOU ARE ON*INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK TO JOIN THE GROUP OR FOLLOW MY BLOG*TAG YOURSELF IN ANY OF THE EBJ PHOTOS ON THE GROUP AND USE THEM AS YOUR PROFILE PIX.*GIVE SUGGESTIONS AND BE PART OF DISCUSSIONS ON THE GROUP.VISIT THE GROUP AT LEAST ONCE IN A WEEK FOR UPDATES.

EBJ VOLUNTEERS - FOR THE EBJ PROPER.

AS PART OF OUR STRATEGIES OF CREATING A WHOLE NEW IMAGE OF WHO LAGOSIANS ARE TO OUR INVITED GUESTS AND WHAT LAGOS IS ALL ABOUT.

*WE NEED GOOD PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN LAGOS AND CAN VOLUNTEER, TO ACCOMMODATE ONE OR TWO PEOPLE COMING IN FROM OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY OR OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.*WE NEED GOOD LOOKING PEOPLE TO HOST OUR INVITED GUEST FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD DURING THE ENTIRE PERIOD OF THE FESTIVAL.*WE NEED GOOD PEOPLE WHO WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE FESTIVAL KITCHEN THAT WE SHALL BE MOUNTING.*WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO BE AT OUR TICKET SALES OUTLETS AROUND LAGOS.*WE NEED USHERS AND GATE KEEPERS DURING THE INDOOR EVENTS.*AND FINALLY WE NEED TO CREATE A FESTIVE MOOD.

BENEFIT FOR VOLUNTEERS -

WE ARE VERY MUCH AWARE OF THE FACT THAT, NO AMOUNT PAID TO OUR VOLUNTEERS WILL BE ENOUGH TO SAY THANK YOU, AND AS WE ALSO INITIATE SUCH IDEA BASED ON A SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, WE CAN ONLY RECIPROCATE BY SHOWING KIND GESTURES.

*EVERY VOLUNTEER THAT TAKE PART IN MAKING THIS FIRST INTERNATIONAL EDITION OF EBJ A SUCCESS, GETS HIM OR HERSELF A FREE TICKET TO ALL INDOOR EVENTS, AN EBJ TSHIRT, HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE FURTHER INSIGHT TO THE PERFORMING ART WORLD AND GETTING CLOSER TO PRACTITIONERS. FINALLY WE ARE DEDICATING THE CENTER SPREAD OF OUR MIND-BLOWING PROGRAM OF EVENT TO ALL THE NAMES OF OUR VOLUNTEERS, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY ARE, WHICH ALSO WIN THEM A COPY EACH, AND THIS WILL BE DESIGNED IN COLLABORATION WITH SWITCHEDON MAGAZINE.

FOR ANTICIPATING VOLUNTEERS PLS DROP YOUR CONTACTS AND A BRIEF OF YOU INYKPROJECTSNG@GMAIL.COM. OR ONIKEKU@YKPROJECTS.COM. YOU CAN AS WELL LET YOUR INTENTION KNOWN ON THIS POST AND WE SHALL GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU FOR MORE BRIEFS.

LET'S THROW LIGHT ON THE CITY OF LAGOS. AND SHOW TO THE WORLD THAT THERE ARE SHORT-CUTS TO HAPPINESS.

May 4, 2009

After the last pigs summit in Porkland, the PIGS all agreed that the chicken and turkey have BIRD FLU, the cows has taken the MAD COW disease to the mainstream, so unless they want to see more ham served at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Salah day, they've all decided to spread their own SWINE FLU DISEASE ! and with this, not even the Muslims and Jews are safe.

Qd reporting from the Porkland.

Swine influenza (also called swine flu, pigfluenza, hog flu, and pig flu) is an influenza caused by those strains of influenza virus that usually infect pigs. Swine influenza is common in pigs and pig friendly places like the midwestern United States (and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.

THE SIV

Transmission of swine influenza virus (SIV) from pigs to humans is not common. When transmitted, it does not always cause human influenza and often, the only sign of infection is the presence of antibodies which are only detectable by laboratory tests. When transmission results in influenza in a human, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine flu. However, for the sake of our pork eaters, eating pork does not pose a risk of infection. Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.

Prevention in humans.

Prevention of pig to human transmission - The transmission from swine to human is believed to occur mainly in swine farms where farmers are in close relationships with living pigs. So farmers and veterinarians are encouraged to use a face mask and finger condoms when dealing with infected animals.Prevention of human to human transmission - Influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing and people touching "something" with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth. Swine flu cannot be spread by pork products, since the virus is not transmitted through food.

Recommendations to prevent spread of the virus among humans include using standard infection control against influenza. This includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public, always wear a mask while walking on the road, or going to a public performance. Notable Nigerian music star named Lagbaja has been nominated as the ambassador for the prevention of swine flu, and WHO has recommend his kind of mask. Although the current trivalent influenza vaccine is unlikely to provide protection against the new 2009 strain, vaccines against the new strain are being developed and could be ready as early as June 2009, so for those already infected now will have to hang on.

Notable outbreaks

Swine flu has been reported numerous times as a zoonosis in humans, usually with limited distribution, rarely with a widespread distribution until 2009. Through various attempts the Pigs have shown their intention to take over the world, notably during the 1918 pandemic in humans, 1976 U.S. outbreak, 1988 zoonosis, 1998 US outbreak in swine, 2007 Philippine outbreak in swine and now the 2009 outbreak in humans which is said to be the worst in the history of such pandemic.

Final TIPS

I kinda hate to spread more panicky news about swine flu, even though this helpful document is the picture of dry bureaucratic accuracy. People freak out over "pandemics," even though we've got one of the worst pandemics in history, AIDS, raging through the carcass of the body-politic right now. Every once in a while you see a street demo, a sitcom, or a charity show about AIDS. Numerous NGOs are pretty big on fighting AIDS. Otherwise we just drop dead of AIDS in hecatombs, and every pandemic become a business as usual. pandemics are usually extremely fearsome diseases that needed billions of dollars for us to be aware of them, practically 100% lethal, and requires so much hard work to get people to remain properly afraid.

There is always some flu around and flu is always killing some people. Even when a raw mutant flu manages to kill off more people than a shooting-war, flu has never ravaged whole cities as cholera or a common typhoid can do. As awful pandemics go, flu is like the snotty-nosed little sister of awful pandemics.

So if you catch the new sexy swine flu, you're very likely not going to die. But since it is a flu, and like every other flu you're gonna kinda WISH you could die. You're not ACTUALLY going to die unless your lips are turning blue, you have bad chest pains, you can't swallow water, you can't stand up, you're having seizures and you don't know where you are or what your name is. As this document suggests, you must watch out for those symptoms. 'Cos the pigs are flying on a world tour.